Yes — it’s time for Purim! Who doesn’t love Purim? They tried to kill us, they failed, we kicked their @$$ to the 7th generation — LET’S PARTY!!!!

Over on my own site, I waxed poetic (and ritual) about the hamantaschen. Over at , you can find some great hamantaschen recipe. Here at PunkTorah — I want to talk Purim Shpiel. Next to Passover, Purim is one of our most accessible and fun holidays and like Passover, it’s also serious. The Purim Shpiel is the tradition of doing a humorous play that mocks our enemies. Jews do love comedy, after all.

For years, I threw a killer Purim Shpiel at my house. I just called it a Purim party — but it was all the same. It’s amazing how awesome a party where everyone gets lit and acts out the bible while I read it can be. It was also always a huge opportunity for learning. I always read the JPS translation — and all the way through.

When we hit the end one year, my sister started to yell that I was making up the part where we slaughter Haman’s extended family. She didn’t remember that from Purim as a child. A HUGE debate ensued about this and whether or not they actually read the whole Megillah at our childhood synagogue and how this changed our impression of the holiday.

But seriously — when can you read the bible to people without seeming creepy? It’s awesome!

Here’s how I do it. I have some props that are for each main character and either asked friends who wanted to be whom, or in the true spirit of Purim, had them draw lots for parts. If people were unfamiliar with the characters, I would do a quick explanation. Everyone who didn’t play a part, had groggers and other noise makers — plus they got to drink.

Then I just start reading, and my friends act out any interpretation of what I’m saying they like. I can assure you, we had some fascinating interpretations going. I remember a prissy, pissy french Haman. One time it turned out the hidden story was that Haman was jealous of Vashti’s awesome gold/velvet stole. And well, Esther bowing before the King’s “golden scepter” lead to a not so family friendly interpretation of how Esther saved her people….

This year — invite your friends over and read the bible to them. Read the whole Megillah — word for word. Drink — you are obligated by Jewish law to eat, drink and be merry. Seriously — this is the only holiday where you are obligated to have fun. Take the opportunity to see what you can learn from the reveling and topsy-turvy experience of Purim.

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Ketzirah is a Kohenet, Celebrant, and Artist. She works with individuals and groups to explore, discover, and create meaningful rituals and ritual artwork to mark moments in life.

My teacher, Jill Hammer, posits that Passover is an initiation ritual. A ritual where we, as individuals are initiated into a tribe year after year, century after century, millennia after millenia. Really Passover is part of an extremely long initiation ritual that begins the night before Passover and ends at Shavuot — where we are transformed by accepting the Mitzvot and the relationship with the Holy One.

This long transformative period begins at the first of Nisan, which is know as the New Year of Kings. This is one of the four new years known on the Jewish calendar. It is the marker in time where we turn our thoughts to recommitting ourselves to the Holy One individually, but more importantly as a nation of people. To be a “king” you cannot just have an individual bound to you, but a full nation of people.

Counting the Omer, which starts on the second day of Passover, is the primary religious activity of the month of Iyyar. When you start reading about the practice of Counting the Omer, it seems super esoteric and ethereal. This means for a lot of people — time to tune out — which is too bad because it can be a simple, interactive, engaging way to do some serious self-reflection and personal growth.

With that in mind we’re going to focus here not on the details of the practice, but rather on the innovative and awesome Omer Calendars people have created to help take this practice out of the ethereal and intellectual and move it to the physical and embodied realm!

Counting the Omer: Quick Primer
The practice began as a 49 period of counting the barley harvest: an omer is a measure of barley. Over the centuries it has transformed into a 49 day period of introspection, which uses the kabbalistic “sephirot” or emanations of G!d/dess as daily and weekly spiritual themes.

For those that want more on the practice first, here’s some links to great primers on Counting the Omer.

Omer Calendar Styles
Just like everything else in Judaism there are Omer Calendars for every possible affinity and style. Omer calendars mostly fall into one of three categories (abacus, page a day, workbook) and over on Pinterest I’ve created a PinBoard of tons of different ones you can explore.

Think about each style and how they might best fit your spiritual needs for counting the omer. Matching the right kind of calendar to your style can make all the difference in adopting a new practice like this.

Style 2: Page-a-Day
To understand the page-a-day style, just think of a page-a-day calendar. You only see the day you are on, and when that day is over you rip off the page to reveal the next day. I can see this being super satisfying for a lot of people. A lot of digital Omer Calendars follow this style. Take the Omer Calendar Widget from NeoChasid.org as a good example. With this widget you only ever see today. Some just tell you what day you are on, and others will include a daily meditation. This very traditional olive wood calendar, is a great example of this style that is not confined to the digital realm.

Style 3: Workbook
The third style, could be seen as an aspect of the “page-a-day,” but what differentiates it is that it’s really more of a workbook for spiritual growth. It’s intended to be engaged and interacted with, not just read or observed. The “A Spiritual Guide To Counting The Omer” by Rabbi Simon Jacobson is probably one of the best known examples. I’ve even made an attempt at creating my own version of an Omer Workbook. These workbook styles offer information, and above all ask questions for the reader to engage with.

Yoko Ono had a famous performance artwork called ‘Cut Piece’. Sitting on a bare stage, she placed a pair of scissors before her audience and instructed them that they were to come forward and cut at her clothes.

Some were gentle and tentative, but others took the scissors to Ono’s garments in ways that were starkly violent. And through it all she sat, maintaining her invitation to an arena in which social manners and conventions were themselves cut away, revealing the currents of light and darkness beneath.

The genius of ‘Cut Piece’ is that it provoked a suspension of normal social relations, allowing the audience to step outside of themselves. The results were disturbing – disorienting. They hinted at darkness and horror.

But I want to suggest that Ono’s social-suspension technique shared much with another, different set of techniques, designed to produce a far more positive and joyous insight – the demands and prohibitions of halacha.

Performance art and religious ritual are birds of a feather. They share a concern with rendering the familiar unfamiliar, stimulating a more careful consideration of how and why we do what we do.

Both create space – both physical and psychological. Both poke holes in everyday life and allow something ineffable to shine through. They are disruptions, that take you outside of yourself, emphasise connection through disconnection, and force a discomfort that hints at transcendence.

At the heart of halacha is the notion of separation. The division between what is allowed and disallowed, sanctity and profanity. The separation of food, of individuals, of time.

Shabbat is a work of performance art. It comes with instructions – strict rules that create a disruption in quotidian reality, bringing holiness and reflection and respite.

To put on tefillin is to clear a mental space through physical distinction. To observe kashrut is to force difference and consideration – of origins, of causality.

Through following Ono’s guidelines, the audience created a space through which currents of communication could run, guided by her intentions, channeling unpredictable, unarticulated forces through a relationship that revealed to them something beyond anything they could expect.